Anniversaries 30 December

Birth

Christian Heinrich von Dillmann6

German educationist 1829–1899

Rudyard Kipling200

English short-story writer, poet, and novelist 1865–1936

Stephen Leacock17

writer and economist 1869–1944

Ramana Maharshi75

Indian religious leader 1879–1950

Hideki Tōjō5

former Prime Minister of Japan and Minister of War executed… 1884–1948

Kanaiyalal Maneklal Munshi1

Indian independence movement activist, politician, writer a… 1887–1971

C. D. Broad11

English philosopher 1887–1971

Victor Serge3

Russian revolutionary and writer 1890–1947

Gerald Bullett3

British writer 1893–1958

L. P. Hartley5

British novelist and short story writer 1895–1972

Sergei Korolev6

Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer 1906–1966

Paul Bowles22

American composer, writer, translator 1910–1999

Elyne Mitchell1

Australian writer 1913–2002

Thomas Dubay1

American Catholic priest, author, and retreat director 1921–2010

Jane Langton1

Novelist, children's writer 1922–2018

John N. Bahcall2

American physicist 1934–2005

Sandy Koufax13

American baseball player 1935

Lloyd Kaufman15

American film director 1945

Marc Forné Molné2

Andorran politician 1946

Patti Smith52

American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist 1946

Jeff Lynne9

British rock musician 1947

Jerry Coyne154

American biologist 1949

Timothy Mo1

Novelist 1950

Bjarne Stroustrup30

Danish computer scientist, creator of C++ 1950

Ben Witherington III6

American religion academic 1951

Peter Coad6

American software entrepreneur 1953

Yuen Kwok-yung3

Hong Kong microbiologist, physician and surgeon 1956

Tom Tiffany1

American businessman and politician 1957

Tracey Ullman36

English-born actress, comedian, singer, dancer, screenwrite… 1959

Susan Ruth Johnson5

1959

Bernadette Lahai2

Sierra Leonean politician 1960

Ben Johnson (sprinter)1

Canadian sprinter 1961–1996

Sean Hannity13

American television host, conservative political commentator 1961

Douglas Coupland193

Canadian novelist, short story writer, playwright, and grap… 1961

Mike Pompeo6

70th United States Secretary of State, former Director of C… 1963

Mixmaster Morris13

English ambient DJ 1965

Sumit Chowdhury2

Indian writer and businessman 1969

Tiger Woods16

American professional golfer 1975

Eliza Dushku10

American actress 1980

Kristin Kreuk7

Canadian actress 1982

LeBron James40

American basketball player 1984

Ellie Goulding3

English singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist 1986

Joe Root4

English cricketer 1990

Death

Al-Qushayri1

philosopher 986–1072

Roger Ascham2

English scholar and didactic writer 1515–1568

Andrew Bonar1

British minister 1810–1892

David Thomas (born 1813)9

19th-century Welsh preacher 1813–1894

Epes Sargent3

American editor, poet and playwright 1813–1880

Josephine Butler3

British feminist 1828–1906

José Rizal64

Filipino writer, ophthalmologist, polyglot and nationalist 1861–1896

Alfred North Whitehead112

English mathematician and philosopher 1861–1947

Romain Rolland43

French author 1866–1944

Grigori Rasputin4

Russian mystic 1869–1916

Práxedis Guerrero2

Mexican journalist and anarchist revolutionary 1882–1910

Vincent Massey20

Governor General of Canada 1887–1967

El Lissitsky43

Soviet artist, designer, photographer, teacher, typographer… 1890–1941

Rita Levi-Montalcini15

Italian neurologist 1909–2012

Luise Rainer11

German-born Austrian and American film actress 1910–2014

Artie Shaw2

American clarinetist, composer, and bandleader 1910–2004

Leonard B. Meyer2

American composer and philosopher 1918–2007

Huston Smith29

Religious studies scholar 1919–2016

Vikram Sarabhai21

(1919-1971), Indian physicist 1919–1971

John Howard Yoder15

20th century American Mennonite theologian 1927–1997

Syd Mead1

American concept artist 1933–2019

Saddam Hussein39

Iraqi politician and President 1937–2006

Jonathan Z. Smith1

American religion academic 1938–2017

Andrejs Dunkels1

1939–1998

Abdurrahman Wahid1

4th President of Indonesia, Islamic cleric 1940–2009

Martin Berkofsky1

American classical pianist 1943–2013